W W Reynolds Foundation Inc.

The W.W. Reynolds Foundation is a small, tightly controlled Boulder, Colorado private foundation ($6.6M in assets) that funds K-12 and university-level curricula in business, economics, financial literacy, civics, and character development. It explicitly does not accept unsolicited proposals — funding is by invitation only, sourced through the personal and professional networks of President Bill Reynolds and a board dominated by Boulder civic and CU Boulder Leeds School of Business figures (Executive Director Liz Stapp and board member Eric Alston are both current or former Leeds School faculty). The foundation's own grantee list bears this out: of 11 recorded grants totaling $1,187,462, six of eleven went to University of Colorado Foundation ($437,000, one grant) and University of Northern Colorado Foundation ($10,000), reflecting deep, longstanding institutional ties rather than open competition. The remaining grantees — Cato Institute ($120,000 across two grants, libertarian free-market policy), Boulder Community Hospital/Health Foundation ($194,462 combined), and a Schwab Charitable donor-advised fund ($426,000 across three grants, used as a flexible pass-through) — show a funder that mixes flagship university partnerships with opportunistic, relationship-based giving close to home. There is no formal LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline visible; instead, the foundation's flagship program, the Hernando de Soto Capital Markets Program at CU Boulder's Leeds School (12,000+ students impacted, since adopted by Boston University, Clemson, University of Kansas, and Wichita State), was itself seeded and shepherded by the foundation rather than won through a competitive process. First-time applicants without an existing tie to the Boulder/CU network, the free-market policy community, or Bill Reynolds personally should treat a cold approach as a long shot. The realistic path in is a warm introduction to Executive Director Liz Stapp, paired with a project that channels gamified, experiential, hands-on teaching methods and emphasizes personal responsibility and independence — themes the foundation states explicitly on its site — and that requests operational funding rather than capital or endowment support.

Across the 11 grants captured in the dataset, total giving is $1,187,462 with an average grant of $107,951; amounts range from $10,000 (University of Northern Colorado Foundation, two grants) to $437,000 (University of Colorado Foundation, one grant) — a nearly 44x spread that reflects the foundation's habit of making one or two very large flagship commitments alongside several smaller ones. Grantee concentration by recipient: University of Colorado Foundation 37% of total dollars ($437,000), Schwab Charitable DAF 36% ($426,000 across 3 grants, avg ~$142,000/grant), Cato Institute 10% ($120,000 across 2 grants, avg $60,000), Boulder Community Hospital/Health Foundation combined 16% ($194,462 across 3 grants), and University of Northern Colorado Foundation 1% ($10,000). Geographically, grants cluster in Colorado (6 of 11 grants) with the remainder split between DC (2, likely Cato Institute) and Florida (3, likely Schwab Charitable-routed gifts) — consistent with the foundation's stated CO/FL geographic focus. Annual grants-paid figures swing considerably: $955,200 (2018) → $707,400 (2019) → $717,400 (2020) → $0 (2021, a near-total pause) → $240,031 (2022) → $400,400 (2023). Total assets have stayed remarkably stable in the $5.8M-$7.3M range since 2018 (currently $6,600,640 as of FY2024), and the foundation runs almost entirely on investment income ($136,716 net investment income in 2023 against $138,416 total revenue) — it receives no new outside contributions, meaning its ~$300K-450K/year giving capacity is a fixed function of a roughly flat endowment rather than a growing donor base. Officer compensation is nominal and stable at $10,000/year (split among directors), signaling minimal overhead. Looking further back, the foundation received a one-time $8.1M contribution in 2014 that briefly swelled revenue to $8,291,870 that year, and an earlier $3.5M contribution in 2013 drove that year's outsized $3,523,400 in grants paid — both outliers explained by a large capitalizing gift rather than a recurring pattern, and neither representative of current giving capacity. At current asset levels, applicants should expect the foundation's realistic annual grants pool to stay in the low-to-mid six figures, concentrated in a handful of awards rather than spread across many small grants.

The W.W. Reynolds Foundation sits in a cluster of similarly-sized private foundations (all classified under Philanthropy & Grantmaking, all holding roughly $6.6M in assets) but stands out for having a defined program focus rather than acting as a pure pass-through vehicle.

All five peers hold near-identical assets (within roughly $10,000 of one another and of Reynolds), which likely reflects a shared asset-tracking cohort in the source dataset rather than coincidence — none has public giving data in this bundle, and none has a public website describing an active program area apart from Forum Foundation and Willowmere Foundation, which do maintain sites. Unlike this generic peer set, Reynolds is unusual in having a named executive director, a published funding philosophy with explicit exclusions, and a flagship university program (the de Soto Capital Markets Program) it actively shepherds — a materially more programmatic, higher-touch operating model than a typical small family philanthropy vehicle of this size.

No dated news articles or press releases specific to 2025-2026 grantmaking were found in web searches — the foundation maintains a low public profile with no press office and sparse social media presence (recently created Facebook pages with minimal activity). The most substantive recent-activity signal is on the foundation's own site: its flagship Hernando de Soto Capital Markets Program, a gamified 'World of Business' freshman course built with CU Boulder's Leeds School of Business under Professor Chris Leach, is now reported to have impacted over 12,000 students and been adopted in iterations by Boston University's Questrom School of Business, Clemson University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State — evidence the foundation continues to actively scale its signature program well beyond its original Boulder campus. The foundation also maintains an active partnership with the Bill of Rights Institute on a card-based civics curriculum designed to drive in-person student debate and collaboration. On governance, the current website lists Liz Stapp (J.D., recently retired as Associate Chair at CU Boulder's Leeds School of Business, where she taught business ethics and law) as Executive Director and Eric Alston (CU Boulder Leeds Scholar in Residence focused on economic institutions and rule of law) and Jane Reynolds as board members — none of whom appear in the IRS officer/director data captured in this dataset (Robert Hottman, David Neenan, Gary Powell, William W. Reynolds, Marty McElwain), indicating the board and staff have grown since that filing was made. Financially, the foundation's grants paid rebounded from a near-total pause in 2021 ($0) to $240,031 (2022) and $400,400 (2023), suggesting a return to a more normal annual grantmaking cadence after a multi-year dip from its 2018 peak of $955,200.

This is not an open-call funder: the foundation states plainly that it does not accept unsolicited proposals, so the single highest-leverage move is securing a warm introduction rather than submitting a cold application. Start by reaching out to Executive Director Liz Stapp (liz@wwreynoldsfoundation.org, 303-478-8611) to introduce your organization and gauge interest before preparing any formal materials — she is the sole named point of contact on the foundation's website. Because the board is anchored by CU Boulder Leeds School of Business figures (Stapp and Eric Alston) and Boulder civic leaders (Bill Reynolds, Gary Powell, Bob Hottman), organizations with an existing tie to that network, or to the free-market/civics policy space (as with grantee Cato Institute), have a real advantage; a proposal with no Colorado or free-market-education connection is a difficult sell. Align language explicitly with the foundation's stated criteria: gaming, role-play, or hands-on teaching methods; qualified, mission-aligned educators; an emphasis on personal responsibility and independence; innovative, student-centered design; and — critically — measurable outcomes and proven effectiveness, since the foundation's flagship investment (the de Soto Capital Markets Program) is itself an outcomes-driven, multi-institution scale story. Request operational support, not capital projects or endowment gifts — the foundation explicitly excludes endowments and general scholarships, and also will not fund arts & culture, religious organizations, health causes, human services, animal welfare, disaster relief, environmental programs, veterans' programs, political or social-advocacy work, ESG initiatives, or organizations heavily dependent on government funding. A common mistake would be positioning a broad K-12 program as generically educational — the foundation's actual pattern favors specific, curriculum-level interventions in business, economics, financial literacy, and civics, not general school operating support. Given the median award size implied by its grantee data (roughly $47,000-$142,000 per grant among its funded organizations, with occasional flagship commitments near $437,000), first-time invitees should scope an ask that is meaningful but proportionate — a defined pilot or curriculum expansion rather than an open-ended multi-year request.